At long last...

we managed to get back up to the Temple. It's been too long, I won't even venture a guess how long. One of Stephen's scouts is leaving on a mission soon; we were able to share this special day with him. I'm a little worried this might make us old. It was strange when some of the older kids started getting married, but now it's the little ones all growing up. It's even weirder to have been married long enough to have young-ins we've worked with old enough to go on missions. Pretty much all of my 8 year old cub scouts are already 12. YIKES and WOW. While I'm at it, who the heck do all these big boys running around my house belong to? Other people have first graders, not me. My kids are little.

It was so nice to be back in the peaceful, quiet, calm of the Temple again. My mind was at ease. It's been so long since I've been able to enjoy a quiet mind void of all the nagging "stuff" it's been busy with. It was similar to the day we found out Stephen had gotten a job. I could breathe and didn't feel like I was being crushed anymore. I've been feeling crushed again. Oh, it was nice to have the crushing worries lifted for a time. We've wanted to get up there for a long time. But, the times you need it the most, babysitting costs combined with gas costs combined with schedules at odds with each other, it just kinda puts it out of the question. I know my kids are NOT easy to babysit, so I try to pay enough to make it worth someone's time to come herd them. The other day I was watching them run wild and thought...these are the kinds of kids that back in the day I would've babysat once and never gone back to. There were several families that I did just that with....one time and never went back again....now....we're one of those families. {sigh}

The day we got married we took one picture by a big tree covered in purple flowers. Every year we'd go up and take an anniversary picture by that tree. Our anniversary was several months ago, but my sweet Stephen was willing to take it today. Would you believe they took the tree out?!? I figured it was a tree and would be a safe picture spot for years to come. We found another pretty little area so we'll use that now. As an added bonus, we had a combined (*child free*) drive time of almost 4 hours all to ourselves. We talked...or didn't, so nice. I've always enjoyed that, even when we were dating, we could just quietly be with each other. Secure comfort is a good thing for the high strung, worrier that poor Stephen got himself hitched to. I'm so grateful we had this day; it was much needed.

*Side note: we picked the wild beasts up at my mom's house then Stephen ran an errand with them while I stayed home. They got back and came running in. I'd noticed their shirts had lots of mud splatters on them and figured they'd had a grand time at Nanny's house. I asked Gabriel, "What'd you guys play at Nanny's?" He answered with a sparkle in his eye and a great BIG smile, "MUD ZOMBIES!" Oh, the never ending imaginations these boys have...